Advice and Name Lists from Emmy Jo

Archive for the ‘Featured Names’ Category

Last summer, my husband and I took a vacation to Seattle to visit relatives, including his grandmother, who happens to live in a nursing home. Name enthusiast that I am, I took this opportunity to scan the nameplates on the residents’ doors, figuring I’d see plenty of old gems worthy of revival. Among the expected Dorothys and Helens and Franceses and Patricias, I spotted a name I’d never seen:

Arleigh

My first thought: What’s a six-year-old doing in a nursing home? The name seemed strangely anachronistic, more akin to the Hayleighs and Carlees of today than the Dorothys and Helens of her generation. Were her parents 80 years ahead of their time, I wondered. Had they just invented something that sounded cute to them? Or was this a legitimate name with a century-old history of use? (more…)